MacBook doesn't see network??

Pinger,

What networking devices are you using? How is the network set up physically? How is the PC connected to the network, how is the Macbook?

Scott

Pinger,

How is the PC connected to the network, how is the Macbook?

If you are connecting the Macbook and the PC using different methods (one wirelessly, one wired), you might have some AP isolation in place. This is when the wireless network is isolated from the standard ethernet network, and communication between the two can be difficult, if not impossible. This is controlled by a setting in your router's configuration.

If this isn't an issue, there may be something wrong with the installation of OS X on the Macbook. As I mentioned before, it wouldn't be that unusual. In spite of what other posters may have stated, there should be no problems with this. I'm just about ready to recommend a format and reinstall of OS X from the "Software Restore" DVD that came with your Macbook. Now, before your daughter has much of her own "stuff" on this computer, is the time to do it as painlessly as possible.

Scott

Pinger,

I actually was able to get to the Shared/Public folder in the Mac but when I tried to access the "Drop File" it wouldn't let me

Actually, that's normal. The "Drop Box" folder is there for you to transfer files in, giving the owner of the Drop Box a copy. You are not allowed to actually see the contents. Try dropping a file in there, and see is it shows up in your daughter's account.

What this means is that the Macbook is accepting connections. I wonder if being connected via USB has anything to do with the problems. Try getting one of the other PCs to connect to the Macbook.

Scott

Pinger,

Well, there is evidently some conflict going on between 10.5.3 and the latest update to Vista. Could be one or the other, but it might be both. I have done some testing, then some research, then some more testing, and I have a few answers for you. Not having PCs in my environment as a general rule, I am not the cross-platform networking "guru" that some on these forums might be, but I think I have some relief for you, nonetheless.

First, Vista and Leopard do not need to be in the same "workgroup" in order to see and access each other. XP still needs this, however, so you'll need to have everybody on the same page, as far as this is concerned. The Macbook should take care of this by itself, as and when it needs to.

Vista is only going to "share" what you tell it to, explicitly. I recommend you right-click on your "home" directory in Vista and choose "share.." Leave password protection in place, but you'll need to click the "Advanced..." button to set permissions such that someone actually logged in over the network, with that home directory mounted remotely, has "full control." This will allow you to drag files/folders either way across the network. Of course, if you only want specific "shared" folders to be accessed, you can do that instead.

You have your mixed XP and Vista machines talking nicely, so I won't address that.

Accessing the Mac from the PC:

Now, Vista connects to the Mac much differently than the other way around. You'll need to use full names for accounts (theoretically, you can use short names, but I found that less reliable than the full name for the account on the Mac). If you have a same-named account on both machines (Vista and Mac), and both accounts use the same password, Vista can and will connect and authenticate automatically. You see, it will first attempt to access the remote computer using the same credentials as the account from which the access is attempted. If either the names or passwords are different, you will get a name/password dialogue. There are pros and cons to using both setups...

I think the advantage of having the Vista account access the Mac account automatically, by using the same credential for the two accounts on the two machines, is self-explanatory. Using different credentials, however, allows you to access the Mac "as you go," so to speak. The advantage to this is that you can log into the Mac using any account information you choose. If there are multiple accounts on the Mac that you might want to access, this allows you to choose which one. When logged in remotely, you will have the permissions and capabilities granted the local user (on the Mac).

I did have some difficulty "seeing" the Mac from Vista, even with Bonjour installed. Sometimes it would appear right away when I opened the "network" window, sometimes I had to re-scan one or more times. In several instances, the Mac would appear, but immediately disappear. I'm not sure what's going on, here. Nevertheless, when I was able to get the Mac's icon to show up long enough to double-click it, access was smooth and immediate.

Accessing the PC from the Mac:

All of your PCs are supposed to just show up in the Finder's sidebar whenever the computers are on the same network, in the same subnet. I have seen this in action in Leopard in the past, but I found it to be not working during my testing. Again, I think something has broken with the updates to OS X, Windows, or both. Nevertheless, you can make the connection, even if the computers are not automatically "seeing" each other. In the Finder on the Mac, choose Go>Connect to Server.... You could try clicking "Browse...," but that will probably get you the same thing that you see in the Finder Sidebar; nothing. In the "Server Address:" filed at the top of the window, type the network name of your PC as follows:

SMB://COMPUTER_NAME

then click "Connect." Enter the full name of the account you want to access on the PC, and the password. You will be given a list of "shares" from the PC. Select one, and you should now see the PC show up in the Finder's Sidebar, as well as the contents of your chosen "share" in the body of the Finder window.

Please let me know how you get on with this info. I am going to do some further testing to see how/if the Mac's firewall settings affect all this, and I'll let you know what I find.

Scott

Pinger,

I don't often say this, but I'm at my wit's end, too. I have been testing all this between my MBP, booted in Vista, and another Mac running Leopard here. My success has been limited and inconsistent.

In other words, I'm not sure a reinstall is going to help you. It is true that now would be the best time to perform one, and I heartily recommend doing so for anyone with a new computer, since many computers (Macs or otherwise) ship from the factory with incipient disk errors. For new Mac users, doing so comes with the additional benefit of introducing them to the process, thereby immediately increasing their knowledge and understanding of OS X.

If you do jump into this, know that it is way easier than doing the same in Windows. Anecdotally, when I installed Windows for the first time on my MBP this past December, I was struck by how barbaric, complicated, and slow it was, even with Vista. You will have several options when formatting (erasing) and reinstalling, but this is the route I recommend you take:

1) Boot to the "Software Restore" DVD that came with the Macbook. Insert the disk with the computer running, then restart. When you hear the startup chime, immediately hold down the "C" key, and continue holding it down until you see the Apple logo.

2) Once the installer loads, you must choose a language. Do so, then look in the Menu Bar (at the top of the display) for the "Utilities" menu. Open Disk Utility from this menu. This is the same Disk Utility that you (or your daughter) will eventually use in OS X. In the "source list" on the left, you will see "devices" (physical hard drives, optical drives, etc.), with "volumes" indented beneath the device that stores them. Certain tasks can only be performed on a device, others on only volumes, while some tasks are common to both. I mention this, because I want you to select the entire internal hard drive (the "device"), not the named volume that will appear indented underneath.

3) With your hard drive selected, switch to the "Erase" pane in the body of the window. Find and click on the "Security Options..." button. This will open a drop-down "dialogue sheet." Enable the option to "Zero All Data." This tells Disk Utility to write zeroes to the entire surface of the drive, instead of performing a simple erasure. This adds a considerable amount of time to the process (an hour or more), but it brings the added benefit of scanning for and "mapping out" any bad blocks that may exist on the drive. Your chances of having a bad block are not terribly high at this time, but the risk does exist, and this is good insurance for the immediate future. Click "OK" to dismiss the dialogue sheet.

4) You can give any name you like to the volume that will be created during the format, but it will probably be easiest to keep the same default name (Macintosh HD). This can be changed at any later time. Enter the new name in the appropriate field, then click "Erase." Wait for the process to complete.

5) When the drive has been formatted, quit Disk Utility to return to the installer. Proceed through the installer, following the clear instructions it will provide, until you reach the final screen that includes a "Customize..." button. Here, you can jettison some of the normally unwanted "fluff" that is installed by default with OS X. The interface is self-explanatory; simply check those items you want to keep, and uncheck those that you will not need. I recommend you opt out of any "Additional language translations" that you think you will not need (most users will not need to use their computer in Korean, for example). This will save oodles of disk space. Similarly, you can choose not to install drivers for printers you know you will not use (be careful here, as one never knows...). Any "test drive" packages are usually unwanted, too. If in doubt on any item, it is best to install it.

6) When you have made all your choices, proceed with the installation. Follow the on-screen prompt to insert the second disk when it appears. At the end of the installation, you will enter the "Setup Assistant, just as you did when you first started the Macbook.

7) Instead of using "Software Update," download the 10.5.3 "Combo" update. This will bring you right back up to speed with a single, large download, instead of several "delta' downloads. Once you have run the "Combo" and restarted, you can use Software Update to tie up any loose ends.

As I have already mentioned, I'm not sure that this is going to provide any relief as far as Mac-PC networking is concerned. However, it just might, and it is one thing that I usually recommend as a matter of course for any new computer anyway. If this does solve some problems, please let us know. Since I and others are having the same problems with cross-platform sharing, any success you have with starting from scratch and using the "Combo" updater (which is known to be sometimes less error-prone) could help many others.

Scott

Pinger,

As I've already mentioned, I have seen my network access working as expected in the recent past. I hope this question reaches you before you install the update: What version of 10.5, exactly, are you running as installed from your Software Restore disks?

My Macbook Pro is a few months older than your new Macbook, and it probably came with an older version of Leopard. If there is a difference, this may help us pinpoint where networking went wrong.

Scott

This is _**TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL**_ Why isn't Apple listening to this problem?????

Nothing has been said at WWDC about how MacBook AIRPORT Wireless NOT WORKING

We need to get APPLES attention: WE NEED FLOOD THE CUSTOMER SUPPORT FEEDBACK SYSTEM: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html.

Let's let then know that we are tired of being ignored and demand that they fix the problem!!!!!

I have used Mac since 1985 and never once have I had a problem that was not resolved immediately.

Let's fix the MAC so we can enjoy the IPHONE.

Frustrated!!!!!!!!!

Pinger,

Until we can get this cleared up for good, use this method to connect access any of the PCs from the Macbook:

Click on the Desktop to make Finder active. From the "Go" menu, choose "Connect to Server..." Type the name of the PC to which you wish to connect:

SMB://computer_name

then click "Connect." For me, this has been completely reliable, provided I have file sharing turned on on the PC (Vista, in my case). You should get a username/password dialogue; enter the full name of the account which you would like to access, and the password associated with that account. That account's home directory will be mounted on the Mac's Desktop, and it will show up in the Finder sidebar as a "Shared" volume.

Understand that this is a Windows to Mac (and vice versa) problem, not a general Mac networking problem. It is not inconceivable that Microsoft has broken this functionality in one or more of their recent updates to both Vista and XP. To give an example of how it should work, I just performed a test with 2 Macs on our network here, turning "FIle Sharing" on and off. When I turn my Macbook Pro's FIle Sharing on, it immediately shows up in both the "Network" folder and the Finder sidebar of the computer sitting across the room (well, there's a delay of about 1 second). Turn it off, and it disappears form the other computer. It works the same going the other way.

And no, I'm not just trying to foist this problem off on something other than OS X. MS has a long history of intentionally "breaking" other developers' implementations of Windows technology, and specifically Apple's. They did it repeatedly with Quicktime for Windows some years ago, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that they are attempting it now with sharing protocols.

I think you will find that, once connected, your PCs and your Mac will share files just fine, but that being able to "see" one from the other will be inconsistent. Use the fool-proof method that I have given, and just hang tight for now. Apple will come along with a fix, just like always.

Scott

I have been watching this thread - hoping for a solution. In the end, I have found some answers that seem to be working for me (i.e. I can see my Windows shares - I don't have a shared printer to test though):

1. Make sure that you are [using a location other than automatic|http://www.macwindows.com/leopard.html#010208f]. There is also a tip here for seeing shared printers.
2. [Edit /etc/smb.conf|http://www.youbitch.org/blog/2007/nov/11/note-to-self-missing-sha red-in-leopard-sidebar> to force the name resolution order
3. Make sure that the Windows computer has Simple File Sharing turned off
4. Make sure that the Leopard Application Firewall is not killing your connection.

Even with all of this, I still have problems [with 0kb files being created|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1530437&tstart=0] when I copy to or from the server using Finder. However, I can use terminal to copy files successfully.

It really shouldn't be this hard!